Flows, transformations, and temporalities in pots life history: The case of Neolithic Dispilio, North Greece

• First detailed study of ceramic repair and reuse in Neolithic Greece. • Over 231 repaired vessels and 100 reworked sherds reveal diverse reuse and curation practices. • Shape-specific vessel curation documented in all phases at Dispilio. • Reused pots followed complex life paths beyond mere economic needs. • Repaired and new vessels coexisted in dynamic ceramic consumption systems. The relative success of biographical studies has rarely been attempted on prehistoric objects, leaving the drama of their lives almost blank ( Joy, 2009 ). Furthermore, the curating, repairing, and reshaping of pottery containers have only been sporadically addressed in Greek prehistoric research. This article examines pottery container flows, transformations, and temporalities in Neolithic Dispilio, NW Greece. In the multi-layered diachronic development of the settlement from the mid-6th to the early 5th mil BCE, we have recorded various changes in the pottery repairing and restoration techniques and practices. More than one hundred reworked sherds of various types and 231 repaired pots in the large corpus of 1,765 whole pots and profiles provide us with the necessary framework to approach the constant re-evaluation of the Neolithic community’s relationships with its ceramic containers, and the ways pottery’s flows and transformations arose out of the lived experience in their social, spatial and material complexity.